Category: News

On February 5, a special policy, or roadmap, was published for research into the micro-flora of the Atlantic. AORA (Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance) is responsible for this publication, which is an organization for marine research in the Atlantic Ocean of which the United States, Canada and the European Union are members.

AORA's goal is to foster the health and preservation of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the well-being, prosperity and security of future generations. The AORA partnership is a result Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Directorate General Research and Innovation at the European Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States.

AORA's policy statement states that the microflora of the ocean plays a key role for human society; for health, food, industry and ecosystems. It is therefore important that the scientific community, industry and policy makers align their efforts to nurture the ocean and better research the properties of the microflora and the potential opportunities it offers. Matís participated in compiling AORA's strategy.

More information about the AORA organization can be found here and a special introductory video about the guide can be found below:

International Day of Women and Girls in Science is today, February 11th.

The United Nations launched this day to raise awareness of the importance of increasing the participation of women and girls in science, which is now almost 30%. The day has been celebrated annually since 2016 to raise awareness of this important issue.

Happy birthday!

Matís ohf. is looking for two specialists to work, one in Akureyri and the other in the Westman Islands. The work mostly involves work on research and development projects in Matís' field of work.

These recruitments are in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Industry and Innovation on strengthening activities in rural areas. This is a full-time job.
Area of work:

• Strengthen Matís' collaboration with the business community in the field of technology and innovation.
• Acquires projects in the field of Matís in collaboration with companies in the area.
• Set up and manage research projects.

Educational and qualification requirements:

• Work experience and knowledge of fisheries and / or food production.
• A university degree that is useful in the job - further education is an advantage.
• Initiative and independence in working methods.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to express oneself in speech and writing in Icelandic and English

The application deadline is February 17th

For further information, contact Jónas R. Viðarsson, Director of Matís, tel. 422 5000 or e-mail jonas@matis.is

Jónas Baldursson, master's student in food science, gives an open lecture in connection with his master's defense on the project "Cold purification of oil from eating and pelagic fish processing. Effect of temperature on cold refining of valuable fatty acids from side streams of fishmeal and fish oil processing".

The lecture will take place on Tuesday 30 January at 15:30 in room 312 at Matís at Vínlandsleið 14. All interested are welcome!

Today, a formal tasting of farmed salmon takes place in the premises of Matís ohf. What makes this salmon especially interesting is that it was raised on a feed mixture that contains insects.

In the project Metamorphosis, led by Birgur Erni Smárason at Matís, is working to turn organic waste into valuable raw materials for utilization in aquaculture feed. Lack of protein-rich feed has called for new solutions to meet growing industry demand. More than half of all fish species are now farmed and it is likely that production will double in the next 15 years.

Research has shown that insects are very suitable for the production of feed for fish, but many species of insects have the property of being able to convert organic waste into a diet rich in fat and protein. The project focuses on the development of new feed materials made from insects that could be used to respond to the growing protein deficiency in Europe in a sustainable way.

Now this research project is about to end and the only thing that is really left is to see how farmed salmon that has been fed with this innovative feed mixture tastes.

The project is funded by EIT Food .

Styrmir Svavarsson will give his master's lecture in mechanical engineering in Matís today at 14:30.

The aim of the project was to examine the effects of slush ice and temporary cold and freezing storage on the temperature of cod in fresh fish processing.

Inadequate temperature control in a fresh fish refrigeration chain has a major impact on product quality. It is therefore important that the cooling chain is uninterrupted from fishing to consumers in order to maintain quality. Therefore, the product must be refrigerated quickly and safely down to the storage temperature and maintained. The temperature of the product, refrigerant and processing rooms were mapped and two pre-cooling experiments were performed. The first experiment consisted of placing a cod neck in a pot with ice cream and the second experiment consisted of storing the finished product in a package in the refrigerator and freezer.

The results showed that the temperature of the product when packed was too high compared to the recommended storage temperature of fresh cod. The pre-cooling experiments generated temperature profiles that showed the effect of the cooling method that could be used as a reference to reach the correct temperature of the product. The end result is that by constantly pre-cooling the product down to a defined storage temperature, it is possible to improve the cooling chain and increase the quality of the product.

Department: Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Supervising teacher: Fjóla Jónsdóttir, Professor at Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.

Supervisors: Björn Margeirsson, Associate Professor at Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Director of Sæplast / Tempra.
Sigurjón Arason, professor at the Faculty of Food and Nutrition, University of Iceland and chief engineer at Matís.

Examiner: Gísli Kristjánsson, production manager at Brim.

When: January 20, 2020, 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm

Where: Matís, Vínlandsleið 12

The Board of the Research Fund has completed the allocation of grants for new research projects for the year 2020.

Three projects led by Matís received grants for the year 2020 from the Research Fund; two project grants and one doctoral student grant.

Science and Mathematics:

Project title: Distribution of arsenic species by seaweed components, in particular arsenic lipids

Project manager: Ásta Heiðrún Elísabet PétursdóttirConcentration (thous.): 19,745 ISK

Engineering and technology:

Project title: ThermoExplore - Bioengineering study of the potential of aerobic thermophilic microorganisms for the production of valuable substances from renewable biomass

Project manager: Guðmundur Óli Hreggviðsson, Steinn Guðmundsson

Concentration (thous.): 18,624 ISK

Doctoral student grant:

Project title: Survey of the underground ecosystem of the volcanic island of Surtsey

Project manager: Pauline Anna Charlotte Bergsten

Concentration (thous.): 6,630 ISK

From 1 January 2020, it will be open until 15:00 on Fridays at Matís.

Opening hours Monday to Thursday will continue from 8:30 to 16:00.

Yesterday, a successful lecture was given in Matís on the organization and impact of salmon farming in northern Norway.

The presentation of the meeting is accessible here.

A recording of the meeting can also be found here.

The results of a project carried out in Matís revealed that fish oils and oils from pelagic fish are well suited as wood preservatives.

Annually, a significant amount of fish oil is added as an additional raw material. In the production of fishmeal, part of the production becomes extra raw material due to high acidity due to free fatty acids or overheating. During the processing of cod liver oil, hundreds of tonnes of unusable fish oil are released due to the production of omega 3 extracts. In addition, hundreds of tons of sterin fall due to the cold cleaning of fish oil. This fish oil has been burned as a fuel and also used for mixing with tar in asphalt making.

In 1941, Tryggvi Ólafsson, the founder of Lýsir hf. summer house with wood paneling as the outer wall at Þingvellir. He used a mixture that mainly contained fish oil to protect the house. Now, 75 years later, the exterior of the house is still as good as new.

The aim of the project was to develop a product from fish oils for use as part of raw materials in wood preservation. Processing processes were developed to process dirty crude oil and pelagic fish into valuable wood oil.

The results showed that fish oils and oils from pelagic fish are well suited as wood preservatives. Sterin could not be used as it precipitates at room temperature and does not mix with other ingredients.